De Palma a la Modhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/
Tue, 3 Mar 2015 00:50:52 -0600en-ushttp://backend.userland.com/rssSCHWIND TALKS IMMERSIVE &#39;CARRIE&#39; MUSICALhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1464119
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1464119<br><font color="blue"><strong>&quot;IMTIMATE BUT EPIC&quot; STAGE SHOW PREMIERES MARCH 12 IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA</strong></font><br /><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/carrieimmersive.jpg" alt="" align="left" /><strong><a href="http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog/1456242/carrie-musical-to-be-completely-immersive/">Last summer</a></strong>, Playbill announced that <strong><a href="http://www.lamiradatheatre.com/carrie.htm">La Mirada Theatre</a></strong> in southern California would be premiering <strong><em>Carrie The Musical</em></strong> in March of 2015 as an audience-immersive theatrical event. Now that the premiere is coming up next week, <strong><a href="http://www.playbill.com/news/article/director-says-audiences-will-root-for-carrie-till-she-kills-you-in-new-immersive-staging-342825">Playbill&#39;s Sheryl Flatow</a></strong> has posted an article in which director <strong>Brady Schwind</strong> discusses his vision for the show. Noting that the space at La Mirada Theatre &quot;has been reconfigured to accommodate an audience of 250,&quot; Flatow quotes Schwind: &quot;It&#39;s intimate but epic, because that&#39;s what I think the story is and what it requires.&quot; Here&#39;s an excerpt from Flatow&#39;s article:<br /><center>--------------------------</center><blockquote><em>Schwind has been fascinated by the show since he was a teenager in Texas and read about it in <strong>Ken Mandelbaum</strong>&#39;s book, <strong>Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops</strong>. He then found a bootleg recording of the score, and &quot;fell in love&quot; with the music. Many years later he saw a video of <strong>Terry Hands</strong>&#39;s RSC production, which became the legendary Broadway production that ran five performances in 1988. He was also in the audience in 2012 when <strong>Stafford Arima</strong> directed an Off-Broadway production that received mixed but respectful reviews.<p> &quot;I really liked how the material had been reevaluated and changed for that production,&quot; says Schwind. &quot;And I immediately thought of doing <strong>Carrie</strong> as an environmentally immersive production. I think <strong>Stephen King</strong>&#39;s story has endured because the horror of the piece is rooted in the memory that we have of our own high school experiences. And because we all have memories to bring to this piece, I thought it would work as immersive theatre.&quot; </p><p> Schwind brought his idea to composer <strong>Michael Gore</strong>, lyricist <strong>Dean Pitchford</strong> and book writer <strong>Lawrence D. Cohen</strong> &mdash; who also wrote the screenplay for the 1976 <strong>Brian De Palma</strong> film &mdash; and they were eager to reexamine the material yet again. &quot;They are still in love with the show, and they are very open to new ideas,&quot; says Schwind. Together they explored the material for two years, with the previous productions serving as a catalyst for this new incarnation.</p><p>&quot;Terry Hands saw the show as a Greek myth, but he wasn&#39;t interested in the high school stuff,&quot; says Schwind. &quot;Stafford had the idea of making the show a parable about high school bullying. He was not as interested in the supernatural aspects. But I feel the show is about many things and you have to hit on all of them. You have to make the audience care about these characters, and you must find plausibility in over-the-top situations.</p><p>&quot;It&#39;s a horror piece and a visceral piece, and the audience wants to feel frightened. They want blood. They want it to be an overloaded sensory experience, because that&#39;s closer to the feeling that we all have in high school. I wanted this to be a Greek tragedy and a horror story and entertaining and fun. You should root for Carrie till she kills you.&quot; </p><p> At La Mirada, part of the audience will be in seating units that move throughout the piece, following the actors along. They&#39;ll also have the opportunity to get out of their seats and go to the prom. <strong>&quot;We&#39;re hoping to dissolve the fourth wall so that the audience becomes one with the cast and characters by the end,&quot; says Schwind. Those who prefer to watch from a safe distance will also be accommodated. &quot;To me, immersive theatre is about creating an environment in which people can choose their own adventure.&quot;</strong> </p><p> If successful, producers <strong>Bruce Robert Harris</strong> and <strong>Jack W. Batman</strong> (<strong>On the Town, Clybourne Park</strong>) plan for more productions. &quot;It&#39;s a grand experiment,&quot; says Schwind. &quot;I think some of the ideas we&#39;re playing around with have never been done before with a linear book musical. The audience will tell us what we&#39;ve created.&quot;</p></em></blockquote><center>--------------------------</center>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1464119Tue, 3 Mar 2015 00:50:52 -0600De Palma a la Mod&#39;BADLAPUR&#39; DIRECTOR CITES DE PALMA, BRESSONhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463990
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463990<br><font color="blue"><strong>POSTER &amp; TRAILER: &quot;DON&#39;T MISS THE BEGINNING&quot;</strong></font><br /><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/badlapur.jpg" alt="" align="left" />In an interview with <strong><a href="http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/features/type/view/id/7969">Bollywood Hungama&#39;s Joginder Tuteja</a></strong>, Bollywood director <strong>Sriram Raghavan</strong>, whose new film <strong><em>Badlapur</em></strong> opened last week, discusses making thrillers and, shades of <strong><a href="http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog/1463956/papushado-lists-de-palma-among-inspirations/">yesterday&#39;s post</a></strong> on <strong><em>Big Bad Wolves</em></strong> directors <strong>Aharon Keshales</strong> and <strong>Navot Papushado</strong>, blending genres and inspirations. &quot;<strong><em>Ek Haseena Thi</em></strong> could be termed as a romantic, revenge thriller or a jail drama,&quot; Raghavan tells Tuteja. &quot;<strong><em>Johnny Gaddaar</em></strong> was a caper heist movie. <strong><em>Agent Vinod</em></strong> was a spy thriller. Now <strong><em>Badlapur</em></strong> is a psychological thriller. I like exploring this genre to the fullest.&quot; With a laugh, Raghavan continues, &quot;Everyone I meet asks me why do I make only thrillers. My point is that even within the genre, there is so much variety. Every film requires its own kind of focus and internalization I guess.&quot;<br /><br />For the new movie, the director tells Tuteja, &quot;We, my main actors and HoDs watched several films in the zone that we were working on, ranging from <strong>Robert Bresson</strong> to <strong>Brian De Palma</strong>. I saw many world cinema thrillers. Iran&#39;s <strong><em>The Separation</em></strong> is also a thriller. I made a list of reference films for <strong><em>Badlapur</em></strong> which I shared with the gang. I made <strong>Varun [Dhawan]</strong> watch a lot of movies that he may never have heard of. He had a great time and subconsciously helped his performance.&quot;<p>Shades of Hitchcock promotion for <strong><em>Psycho</em></strong>, which stated that no one would be admitted into the theater once the picture begins, the poster and trailers for <strong><em>Badlapur</em></strong> simply and plainly tell viewers, with a tease, &quot;Don&#39;t miss the beginning.&quot;</p>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463990Sat, 28 Feb 2015 12:36:29 -0600De Palma a la ModPAPUSHADO LISTS DE PALMA AMONG INSPIRATIONShttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463956
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463956<br><font color="blue"><strong>&#39;BIG BAD WOLVES&#39; CO-DIRECTOR LISTS DUO&#39;S FAVES, AND TALKS ABOUT BLENDING GENRES</strong></font><br /><img src="http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/rabies.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="250" align="left" />Back in 2013, <strong><a href="http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog/1448531/fantasia-fest-codirector-on-big-bad-wolves/">I posted some quotes from Fantasia Film Fest co-director Mitch Davis</a></strong> enthusing about <strong><em>Big Bad Wolves</em></strong> as a mix of the <strong>Coen Brothers, Park Chan-wook and Brian De Palma</strong>. Later that year, <strong>Quentin Tarantino</strong> declared the film his favorite of 2013.<br /><br />Today, <strong><a href="http://www.impactnottingham.com/2015/02/our-biggest-passion-is-finding-emotional-moments-in-horrific-situations-talking-with-director-navot-papushado/">Impact&#39;s Sam Todd</a></strong> posted an interview with <strong>Navot Papushado</strong>, who co-directed <strong><em>Big Bad Wolves</em></strong> with <strong>Aharon Keshales</strong>. Prior to <strong><em>Wolves</em></strong>, the pair had made a feature called <strong><em>Rabies</em></strong> (pictured here), and they more recently provided a short film for the horror anthology <strong><em>ABCs of Death 2</em></strong>.<p>When asked by Todd to talk about what films or filmmakers have influenced Papushado and Keshales, Papushado replies, &quot;<strong><em>Rabies</em></strong> was not only influenced by horror films. Our favourite directors, if I had to list them, would be <strong>Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski and William Friedkin</strong>. We realised that many of the great directors started in horror. Specifically for <strong><em>Rabies</em></strong>, we wondered what it would be like if <strong>Robert Altman</strong> directed a horror film, or something like <strong><em>Magnolia</em></strong>, where all these people are brought together by terrible circumstances. We drew inspiration from a lot of genres, horror films and just films we liked. We also took influence from recent Korean films, specifically their blending of genres, it&rsquo;s dramatic, it&rsquo;s horrific, it&rsquo;s funny, it&rsquo;s everything. We are great fans of the <strong>Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantino</strong>. <strong><em>Rabies</em></strong> was our first attempt at mixing it all up. We took everything we liked and mixed it up in one crazy film.&quot;</p><p>Near the end of the interview, Todd asks, &quot;Which director should every aspiring filmmaker be familiar with?&quot;</p><p>Papushado: &quot;I&rsquo;d go straight for the source: <strong>Sergio Leone</strong>, especially <strong><em>The Good, The Bad and the Ugly</em></strong>, it was the bible for me as a kid. I watch it every time I begin shooting a movie. Obviously Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, the way Spielberg uses the camera to tell a story is a masterclass, it&rsquo;s the best school for moving the camera. Of course Tarantino and the Coen Brothers from recent years. I can&rsquo;t not put Francis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma. Everyone is inspired by these 70&rsquo;s filmmakers because they invented everything.&quot;</p>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463956Fri, 27 Feb 2015 23:27:34 -0600De Palma a la Mod&#39;SLIT&#39; INFLUENCED BY GIALLO, DE PALMAhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463831
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463831<br><a href="https://www.facebook.com/slitmovie/posts/410611352453353"><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/slitfb.jpg" alt="" align="left" /></a><strong><em>Slit</em></strong>, written, edited, and directed by <strong>Colin Clark</strong>, will be released online in the coming weeks, according to the film&#39;s <strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/slitmovie/timeline">Facebook page</a></strong>. The description at the <strong><em><a href="http://daredevilfilms.net/slitmovie/">Slit</a></em><a href="http://daredevilfilms.net/slitmovie/"> website</a></strong> reads, in part:<br /><br />&quot;Passion and murder are in store for two party girls whose steamy sexual encounter turns bloody when a black-gloved killer follows them home. <p> &quot;Taking its cue from Italian &#39;giallo&#39; thrillers of the 1970&#39;s, SLIT is a contemporary horror experience that mixes together a color-saturated visual style, vivid sensuality, and shocking violence, set to a pulsating synthesizer score. </p><p> &quot;&#39;Giallo&#39; - Italian for &#39;yellow&#39; - refers to a genre of films inspired by pulp mystery novels published in Italy with distinctive yellow covers. &#39;Giallo&#39; films of the 1960&#39;s-1970&#39;s bear a distinct, baroque cinematic style -- and are known for their vivid colors and bizarre camerawork, fetishistic close-ups, iconic black-gloved killers, and nerve-jangling scores. Practitioners of the &#39;giallo&#39; arts include <strong>Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Umberto Lenzi</strong>, and <strong>Lucio Fulci</strong>.</p><p> &quot;<strong><em>SLIT</em></strong> was envisioned as a mashup between the sizzling eroticism of early <strong>Brian De Palma</strong> (his <strong><em>Body Double</em></strong>, <strong><em>Dressed to Kill</em></strong> and <strong><em>Blow Out</em></strong> are unofficial &#39;giallos&#39;) and the colorful-yet-brutal cinematic overkill of Argento (<strong><em>Suspiria, Deep Red</em></strong>), accompanied by an 80&#39;s-style electronic score reminiscent of <strong>Giorgio Moroder</strong> (<strong><em>Cat People, Scarface</em></strong>), <strong>Jan Hammer</strong>, or <strong>Tangerine Dream</strong>.&quot;</p><p>There is also a <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiUw3rnDtk4">trailer for the film on YouTube</a></strong>.</p>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463831Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:06:34 -0600De Palma a la Mod&#39;CANON&#39; PODCAST MAKES CASE FOR &#39;BLOW OUT&#39;http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463781
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463781<br><font color="blue"><strong>DEVIN FARACI &amp; AMY NICHOLSON WELCOME GUEST JEREMY SMITH TO TALK ABOUT DE PALMA</strong></font><br /><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/canonpodcast.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://badassdigest.com/2015/02/23/the-canon-episode-15-blow-out/">The Canon</a></strong> is a podcast that premiered last November in which Badass Digest&#39;s <strong>Devin Faraci</strong> and L.A. Weekly&#39;s <strong>Amy Nicholson</strong> discuss a movie with the aim of deciding whether or not it should be included in &quot;The Canon&quot; of the greatest films of all time. Sometimes the two disagree fervently, but not always. This week, they invited &quot;Mr. Beaks&quot; himself, <strong>Jeremy Smith</strong>, who chose <strong>Brian De Palma</strong>&#39;s <strong><em>Blow Out</em></strong> as the film up for discussion. And it is a lively discussion, touching on other De Palma films, his style, his themes, etc. All three are very positive about the film, and eager to talk about it. There&#39;s an interesting back-and-forth about style, and how much is too much. Well worth a listen, and afterward, listeners can have their say about whether <strong><em>Blow Out</em></strong> belongs in &quot;The Canon&quot; by commenting <strong><a href="http://thecanon.wolfpop.com/blog/342143/the-official-blow-out-voting-thread">here</a></strong>.<br />(<em>Thanks to Andreas!</em>)http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463781Wed, 25 Feb 2015 00:33:54 -0600De Palma a la ModBUCKLEY ON LOOPING DIALOG FOR DE PALMAhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463734
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463734<br><font color="blue"><strong>AND THEN BEING ASKED TO PLAY THE GYM TEACHER IN &#39;CARRIE&#39;</strong></font><br /><img src="http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/bettybuckley2015.jpg" alt="" align="left" /><strong>Betty Buckley</strong> was interviewed by the <strong><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/gay-south-florida/article11006831.html">Miami Herald&#39;s Steve Rothaus</a></strong>, ahead of her concerts this weekend in Miami Beach. Buckley tells Rothaus a bit about getting her start on and off Broadway from the late 1960s to early 1970s, before entering the world of film:<br /><center>---------------------</center><blockquote><em>She then auditioned for <strong>Brian De Palma</strong>&rsquo;s film, <strong><em>Phantom of the Paradise</em></strong>. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t pick me for that, but he hired me to do voices in three of his movies after that.&rdquo;<p> Buckley says De Palma wanted her to re-record (&ldquo;loop&rdquo;) dialog for other actresses who were pretty but couldn&rsquo;t act.</p><p> &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Listen, Brian, you can&rsquo;t do this man. There are all these people like me who are studying acting in New York or L.A. or wherever, paying for our classes and working really hard to become better actors and any one of these parts would be great debut parts for us. I&rsquo;m just telling you right now, I won&rsquo;t do this anymore.&rsquo; He was like, &lsquo;Oh.&rsquo; Six months later, he called me and he gave me the book of <strong>Carrie</strong>. He said &lsquo;This is my next movie. I want you to be the gym teacher.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p></em></blockquote><center>---------------------------</center>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463734Tue, 24 Feb 2015 00:02:27 -0600De Palma a la Mod&#39;UNTOUCHABLES&#39; MONDAY NIGHT IN PASADENAhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463673
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463673<br><font color="blue"><strong>AND PRODUCTION DESIGNER WHO GOT HIS START AS A PA ON &#39;UNTOUCHABLES&#39; SET</strong></font><br /><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/untouchables.jpg" alt="" align="left" />Thanks to Matthew for letting us know about Monday night&#39;s 7:30 screening (February 23) of <strong>Brian De Palma</strong>&#39;s <strong><em>The Untouchables</em></strong> at the <strong><a href="https://www.arclightcinemas.com/movie/arclight-presentsthe-untouchables">ArcLight</a></strong> in Pasadena, California. The screening is part of the ArcLight&#39;s <strong><a href="https://www.arclightcinemas.com/en/news/arclight-presents-road-to-gold">Road to Gold</a></strong> Academy Awards series.<br /><br />A few weeks ago, <strong><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150127/news/150128953/">Daily Herald columnists Jamie Sotonoff and Dann Gire</a></strong> wrote about <strong>Dan Clancy</strong>, a production designer who got his start as a production assistant on <strong><em>Brian De Palma</em></strong>&#39;s <strong><em>The Untouchables</em></strong>. The column began:<br /><center>----------------------------</center><blockquote><em>The moment he stepped into the 1920s Chicago, Dan Clancy knew he&#39;d found his life&#39;s calling. <p> &quot;My dad told me that a movie filming in Chicago was looking for production assistants,&quot; the Park Ridge resident told us. &quot;I got lucky enough to get on the movie &#39;<strong>The Untouchables</strong>.&#39; </p><p> &quot;It was amazing to meet <strong>Sean Connery</strong>, to meet <strong>Brian De Palma</strong>. That was pretty cool. On a street off Ogden Avenue on the West Side, they transformed the entire neighborhood into the 1920s and it was just mind-boggling! I saw that and said, &#39;I want to do this for the rest of my life.&#39;&quot; </p><p> That was 1986. </p><p> Today, Clancy works as a production designer after moving up through the ranks as a production assistant, set dresser, leadman and set decorator.</p></em></blockquote><center>--------------------</center><br /> <font color="blue"><strong>KEVIN COSTNER IN CHICAGO</strong></font><br /><br />Meanwhile, <strong>Kevin Costner</strong> was on the promotion trail last month for <strong><em>Black Or White</em></strong>. <strong><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/celebrity/chi-kevin-costner-black-or-white-anthony-mackie-20150128-column.html#page=1">The Chicago Tribune&#39;s Luis Gomez</a></strong> asked Costner if Chicagoans had showed any resistance to them while filming a movie that included <strong>Al Capone</strong> as a character.<p>&quot;No, not at all,&quot; replied Costner. &quot;They wanted to see Sean Connery and <strong>Robert De Niro</strong>. Dallas has a little bit of insecurity about what happened there with Kennedy [Costner filmed the 1991 <strong>John F. Kennedy</strong> assassination film, <strong><em>JFK</em></strong> in Dallas], but Chicago doesn&#39;t apologize for nothing. You don&#39;t apologize for Capone. We were here filming for two and a half or three months. I hadn&#39;t spent time in a big city before that. I also had never lived 15 floors up where you could look across and see your neighbor. I&#39;d never experienced anyone that close to me in my life. You got to know a person without ever talking to them because you got to see the patterns of their life. You could almost turn into a peeping Tom here.&quot;</p>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463673Mon, 23 Feb 2015 00:16:14 -0600De Palma a la Mod&#39;BODY DOUBLE&#39; AT ALAMO IN KANSAS CITY SUNDAYhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463657
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463657<br><font color="blue"><strong>BADASS DIGEST: &quot;ONE OF THE MOST REWARDING FILMS OF DE PALMA&#39;S CAREER&quot;</strong></font><br /><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/bodydoublebadassdigest.jpg" alt="" align="left" />If you&#39;re in Kansas City on Oscar night tomorrow, you can catch <strong>Brian De Palma</strong>&#39;s <strong><em>Body Double</em></strong> at the <strong><a href="http://drafthouse.com/movies/body-double/kansas_city">Alamo Drafthouse Cinema</a></strong> at 6pm. In preparation for screenings at multiple Drafthouse locations across the country, <strong><a href="http://badassdigest.com/2015/02/20/skin-flick-the-pornographic-majesty-of-brian-de-palmas-body-double/">Badass Digest&#39;s Jacob Knight</a></strong> has written rather lovingly about the film. &quot;The choice to make Scully as vanilla pudding as possible is deliberate,&quot; Knight states of the main character played by <strong>Craig Wasson</strong>, &quot;and it&rsquo;d feel like an insult to Wasson if the actor weren&rsquo;t so knowingly game for the entirety of the movie&rsquo;s near two-hour runtime. Yet there&rsquo;s an almost impish glee Wasson conveys as he goes from helpless Peeping Tom to gullible murder suspect to undercover porn hustler in a mere matter of Acts. To criticize Scully for being a schmuck is missing the point entirely, for we are all dopey, doe-eyed adventurers in this cum-stained playground just looking for something to get off on.<p>&quot;But even if a viewer can&rsquo;t get over Wasson&rsquo;s jokingly willful na&iuml;vet&eacute;, it&rsquo;s hard to imagine anyone who truly loves cinema dismissing the virtuoso display of craftsmanship De Palma yet again employs in service of creating this sticky jungle. As Scully stalks, De Palma yet again unleashes his love of the Steadicam, transforming a California shrine to consumerism (The Rodeo Collection at 421 Rodeo Drive) into a veritable maze through which his camera can cruise. Later, De Palma stops the entire film dead in its tracks in order to stage an elaborately choreographed song and dance number set to <strong>Frankie Goes to Hollywood</strong>&rsquo;s &#39;Relax,&#39; all of which ends in a round of softcore pawing. Had De Palma been allowed by the studio to execute his original concept (he wanted <strong><em>Body Double</em></strong> to be the first big budget picture to sport unsimulated sex scenes), it would&rsquo;ve resulted in the most cinematically daring act of onscreen sex ever created. All the while, <strong>Pino Donaggio</strong>&rsquo;s twinkling pianos, shimmering synths and soft drums add a playful sheen of eroticism, as the composer (and longtime BDP collaborator) seems most at home in this den of misdeeds. </p><p> &quot;None of this would matter if it weren&rsquo;t for Holly Body (<strong>Melanie Griffith</strong>), the gyrating soul living in the movie&rsquo;s black heart. De Palma initially cast <strong>Annette Haven</strong>, but Columbia Pictures made the director rethink the role once they discovered that she was an actual porn queen, having starred in numerous classic fuck films since 1973. But Columbia&rsquo;s pearl-clutching became a blessing in disguise for the director, as Griffith ends up giving the greatest performance of her entire career. Holly Body is a marvel of a character, completely sexy while never once relinquishing control to her male counterparts. When propositioned to star in the fake movie Scully&rsquo;s producing, she rattles off a litany of lewd acts that decimates the impotent actor&rsquo;s confidence. The woman is a professional, direct and to the point, and no man is going to dictate what she does with her body just because he&rsquo;s offering a paycheck. Griffith straddles the line between pixie dream girl and art rock ass-kicker with such command that it&rsquo;s impossible to look away from her whenever she&rsquo;s on screen. Casting a real life porn star in the role would&rsquo;ve been a great gimmick, but we would&rsquo;ve never been graced with such a scene-stealing performance.&quot;</p><p>Near the beginning of the article, Knight writes about one of the movies De Palma had picked for his &quot;Guilty Pleasures&quot; article in a 1987 issue of <strong><em>Film Comment</em></strong>. &quot;Amongst the apologetics,&quot; Knight writes, &quot;was a 1981 slice of smut titled <strong><em>Nightdreams</em></strong>, directed by <strong>FX Pope</strong>. In reality, FX Pope doesn&rsquo;t exist. The name was a nom de skin, belonging to commercial photographer and artist <strong>Francis Delia</strong> who, along with partner <strong>Stephen Sayadian</strong>, designed ads for everything from <strong><em>Hustler</em></strong> magazine to key art for major motion pictures. Included in their portfolio of immaculately designed one sheets (which also boasts <strong>John Carpenter</strong>&rsquo;s <strong><em>The Fog</em></strong> and <strong><em>Escape From New York</em></strong>) was the iconic image for De Palma&rsquo;s own <strong><em>Dressed to Kill</em></strong>. The admiration wasn&rsquo;t one sided; in <strong><em>Nightdreams</em></strong>, Delia and Sayadian recreated the image from the piece of art they invented to help sell De Palma&rsquo;s infamous murder mystery, repurposing it into one of the most harrowing scenes in the history of hardcore.&quot;</p>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463657Sat, 21 Feb 2015 21:12:46 -0600De Palma a la ModTHERE WAS A TIMEhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463656
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463656<br><font color="blue"><strong>WHEN DE PALMA&#39;S &#39;HOME MOVIES&#39; WAS SHOWN ON THE MOVIE CHANNEL</strong></font><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/ClassicHBOGuide/status/569167345274515456"><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/homemoviestmclisting1982.jpg" alt="" /></a>http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463656Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:41:11 -0600De Palma a la ModSEAN PENN RECEIVES HONORARY CESARhttp://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463633
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1463633<br><font color="blue"><strong>SCENES FROM &#39;CASUALTIES OF WAR&#39; &amp; &#39;CARLITO&#39;S WAY&#39; INCLUDED IN TRIBUTE</strong></font><br /><a href="http://newzcard.com/card/JfMCKc/us-actor-sean-penn-looks-l-receives-a-lifetime-achievement-award-from-french-actress-marion-cotillard(JfMCKc)"><img src="http://angelfire.com/de/palma/seanpennreceivescesar.jpg" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Sean Penn</strong> received a standing ovation tonight at the 40th C&eacute;sar Awards ceremony in Paris, as <strong>Marion Cotillard</strong> presented the actor/director with an Honorary C&eacute;sar. Prior to handing him the award, Cotillard delivered what a journalist at <strong><a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/laparisienne/actu-people/personnalites/en-direct-suivez-la-ceremonie-des-cesars-20-02-2015-4549169.php">La Parisienne</a></strong> describes as &quot;a long love letter to Sean Penn, &#39;a free man who rebels, who questions&#39;.&quot; A rundown at <strong><a href="http://www.purepeople.com/article/cesar-2015-en-live-arrivee-glamour-de-guillaume-canet-et-marion-cotillard_a155409/1#lt_source=external,manual">Pure People</a></strong> says that Cotillard was brought to tears by the tribute. Speaking in English as he accepted the C&eacute;sar, Penn said, &quot;I&#39;ve always had an affinity for French cinema, it maintains, in my opinion, all of these virtues and encourages the dreams of actors, actresses, and directors. A refuge when things got too cynical. (...) the French artists were able to wear the colors of cinema.&quot; According to other tweets from viewers watching the ceremony, there was some sort of montage included in the tribute that included some of Penn&#39;s scenes from <strong>Brian De Palma</strong>&#39;s <strong><em>Casualties Of War</em></strong> and <strong><em>Carlito&#39;s Way</em></strong>, among many others.http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/control.comment?a=render&blog_id=1263345&entry_id=1463633Fri, 20 Feb 2015 18:39:08 -0600De Palma a la Mod